Network and computer security is an ever-increasing worry for many companies and individual users. In particular, there are a number of environments in which computers in multiple security domains exist, such as Unclassified, Confidential, Secret, etc. . . . Security domains are isolated environments within a computer system (called a Multiple Independent Levels of Security (MILS) system) that are often connected to a sensitive network. This sensitive network is itself physically separated from other, open networks that the sensitive network may desire to interact with from time to time. In some circumstances, it is desirable to share video resources and user I/O inputs among the disparate security domains. Unfortunately, computers in these environments currently share a single graphics processing unit (GPU) between the security domains, leading to an inadvertent avenue for malicious interaction (as referred to as covert channels) across the supposedly isolated security domains through the GPU. In particular, as the GPU is shared between the various security domains, data residing on the GPU and data in the memory spaces of the separate security domains are vulnerable to attacks launched from the GPU. Moreover, due to the nature of the resource sharing, extensive testing of components used in such systems increase production costs and lengthen time-to-production dramatically.
There is thus a need for systems and methods that increase the security between different security domains, in particular when video and I/O resources are shared. Moreover, there is a need for such systems and methods to display content from the disparate security domains in a manner that emulates display at the individual computers providing the content.